Curiosity
by ChocolateEclar
Summary: Post Deathly Hallows oneshot. In which Snape and Dumbledore’s portraits meet the little Potter boy who shares their names.


_**Curiosity**_

_By ChocolateEclar_

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or places, although I do own this story and some elements of the characterizations of Al Potter, his siblings, and their cousins.**

**A/N: Yes, I am aware that JKR said that McGonagall would not be the headmistress now, but I didn't want to create a whole new character for this. Maybe next time when the role is more important. Also, if you have not read Harry Potter 7, WHY ARE YOU HERE? Stop reading.**

**EDIT - A/N 2: Thanks a bunch to the reviewers who suggested a minor change in Snape's last dialogue from 'guess' to 'suppose.' Every little bit helps.**

**Summary:** _Post-Deathly Hallows one-shot. In which Snape and Dumbledore's portraits meet the little Potter boy who shares their names._

* * *

Occasionally, Snape watches some of the happenings in the headmaster's office from his portrait. Being a headmaster himself, even for just one brief, hell-raising year, means that he joins the likes of Armando Dippet, Phineas Nigellus, and, of course, Albus Dumbledore. 

The school has mostly returned to normal in the last several years. There are still Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Slytherins running around, and Filch is still dragging, more often than not, bunches of Gryffindors in front of the headmistress when he catches them in the hallways after hours.

Today is different, although Snape does not realize it at first. Dumbledore's portrait takes a quick, little intake of breath, and only then does Snape pay attention to the two boys being brought up to Minerva McGonagall's desk by Argus Filch.

One is tall and freckly and brown-eyed. He makes a rude gesture at the other boy when he thinks no one is looking, but one of the portraits, Dilys Derwent, makes a small outraged noise.

The other little boy is just as dark-haired, but he's short and the owner of a pair of bright, green eyes. Those are what really catch Snape's notice, and when he takes in the whole picture of the little boy who looks alarmingly like Harry Potter (and therefore _his_ father as well), he grunts and scrunches up his whole face in annoyance. He had known Harry Potter had succeeded, but to think that there were more James Potter clones running around!

"Caught these two yelling at each other outside the library, ma'am," says Filch excitedly, as he shoves the two boys forward.

The smaller boy stumbles and something falls out of his robes. It lays on the ground silver and shimmering. The older boy rolls his eyes and sighs theatrically.

"Well, what were you doing at eleven o'clock at night, Misters Potter?" McGonagall asks with a sigh of her own.

That seals it for Snape. He glances at Dumbledore to see him grinning amusedly at the fallen invisibility cloak.

"James came to find me!" squeaks the little boy suddenly. "I was lost and I hadn't come back to the common room, so he went to look for me!"

"You are still getting lost four months into your first year here, Mr. Potter?" asks McGonagall.

"Yes," insists the little Potter, but Snape, even though Legilimency is impossible through a portrait, can tell the boy is lying because he has his father's face.

The other boy, James (the name makes Snape sneer), seems momentarily stunned by this spectacular lie coming from his brother and then decides to add his own spin on it. "Yeah, that's what happened, Professor," he states. "I went looking for Al and found him by the library. He kept insisting he wasn't lost, you see, and that's why we were fighting. We were just going to get back to the Gryffindor Tower in a minute when Mr. Filch came."

McGonagall lets out another sigh, but Snape can tell that another generation of Potters is about to begin to get away with their capers. There is no love lost between him and Harry Potter, despite the gift he gave him at his death, but he now can grudgingly accept that Harry stopped the Dark Lord for good and perhaps was not so arrogant after all. The two little boys in front of McGonagall are a testament to his views on Harry, with one being a little haughty and the other a bit more careful and a bit less brash.

"Fifteen points from Gryffindor," McGonagall says finally. "And I am confiscating your cloak until I get written permission from your parents saying that you can bring it to school."

James looks like he is about to glare at his brother but thinks better of it. "Of course, Professor," he replies.

"Escort them back to their common room for me, Argus," McGonagall says.

The little boy grins triumphantly and perhaps a little smugly at James, but the smile is somewhat dampened when they leave the office and reach the staircase and James whispers, "Mum is going to kill me, thanks to you! At least, I had the map, but we don't even have the cloak now – " The rest of his words are cut off even from the portraits as the three (including a stormy Filch) drop out of hearing far down the winding stairs.

McGonagall waits until they are gone, and then she glances up at the portraits above her desk. "Not a word about Potters, Severus," she says. She comes around her desk and picks up the invisibility cloak. Folding it, she places it in a glass case that houses a ruby-encrusted sword and a few silver objects that once belonged to Dumbledore.

"Of course, Minerva," Snape replies, but once she has left the office for her rooms, he grumbles to himself.

"You know, Severus," says Dumbledore, "as disconnected as you are from current events, I suspect you don't even know the name of the younger Potter boy."

"It doesn't interest me," comes the reply, but there is a weariness there that can only surface when he spots Lily's eyes in another's face.

"The older boy, unsurprisingly," continues Dumbledore cheerfully, "is James Sirius Remus Potter. How interesting to have two middle names. (I have three, but my father did always make interesting choices.) His younger brother is Albus Severus Potter." He pauses and adds, "What a dreadful sounding name."

"How do you know that?" Snape queries tiredly after a moment.

"Minerva discussed his birthday with one Professor Neville Longbottom some three or four years ago, in this very office," Dumbledore answers. "Why do you think the boy was staring at our portraits? We are his namesakes, and he knows it."

Snape says nothing and tries not to think much of the young Potters for some time.

* * *

Six weeks later, although Snape has little concept of time, the darkness is broken up in the office only by moonlight coming through the panes of the windows. The invisibility cloak is no longer in the glass case, although James had to send many an apologizing letter to his parents to get them to give him permission to have it back (mostly, it was his grandmother who objected and ordered his parents to teach the boys a lesson – in true Weasley Mother Hen fashion). If it had been up to their father, the boys would have had the cloak back in a second. 

Snape is not really paying attention to anything (being a portrait of a dead man is a strange sort of sensation that is like living in a dream-like world in some instances, but also feeling totally and utterly dead at other times), but he peers out into the office when Dippet is startled awake. "There's someone on the stairs," Dippet whispers, following by acknowledging murmurs from some of the other portraits.

The door opens with a muttered spell and then light from a wand spills into the room. The boy's hair is shaggier, but Snape still recognizes Albus Severus Potter, as he pulls the rest of his body out from under that famous cloak.

"Um, excuse me," he says softly, "I'd very much like to speak to Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape."

"Oh, is that all?" grunts Phineas Nigellus with a snort. "You broke into the headmistress's office, child."

"I'm sorry," Al squeaks. "I just had a few questions. _Pleasedon'tturnmein_!"

"And who are you to ask such of us?" Phineas Nigellus hisses.

"Step forward, Albus," says a voice. It takes a moment for Al to figure out who the words belong to, but then he spots the white-haired old man's portrait with his eyes twinkling at him.

Obediently, but hesitantly, Al walks towards the desk and stares up at the portrait. "I guess I just wanted to meet you, you see, sir," he says in a rush of panic.

"It is wonderful that you did," replies Dumbledore, "because I wanted to meet you too."

The boy's eyes go impossibly wide and green in the darkness, and Snape can almost say that they glow. "The man glaring at you is Professor Severus Snape," Dumbledore adds, pointing to his left at the portrait beside him. Snape sneers at them both but remains silent.

"I don't really know what to ask," Al admits, "but my dad is always saying it's important that I was named for two Hogwarts headmasters."

"Names are fickle things," states Dumbledore, but he is beaming down at the boy affectionately.

Cautiously, Al sits on the floor by the desk so that he does not have to strain his neck so much to see. His robes are a bit too big and envelope him, and Snape does not remember if the boy's father came to Hogwarts so small. All he recalls is gazing at Harry across the Great Hall in loathing that first day.

Al seems to bask in happiness for a moment until he bites his lip and finally dares to speak again. "I know a lot about your lives because my dad told me, of course, so what about we just talk normally?"

"Normally?" repeats Dumbledore with a chuckle. "Well, by all means, do. How is your sister?"

"Oh, Lily's fine," Al replies, even though Snape makes a noise a bit like he has been punched. "She sent James and me a letter last week about the knargle she claims she spotted in the attic. Mum just says that means she spends too much time with the Lovegoods. Lily likes to visit them over the hill when we go and visit our grandparents. Ms. Luna isn't there that often. Mostly she travels."

Dumbledore nods and says, "The Lovegoods do have a certain flair for the unknown."

"Oh, this was in the letter," adds Al, as he takes out a folded picture from the pocket of his robes. He flattens it out on the ground and then holds it up. The tiny Lily Potter beams up at them with a red-haired boy, as they sit on the back steps of the Burrow. The image leaves Snape cold, but it helps that the girl has Ginny Weasley's lighter red hair, and not the deep color of her namesake. "That's Hugo, my cousin," Al continues.

Dumbledore smiles again and asks, "How about your Transfiguration class? I taught that a great while ago."

"Oh, I can turn rats into goblets without them turning all furry like Rose's do," he exclaimed. "Rose is my cousin. She and I were trying more advanced spells the other day in the common room, but she's much better at Ancient Runes because her mum, that is, my Aunt Hermione, taught her how to read them. I don't see how practical that is for us as eleven year olds though."

"You do not plan on running across any cryptic messages?" Dumbledore asks, chuckling.

"Well, if I do, then I'll just ask Rose, I suspect," Al admits. "She and James are great at Potions, but I tend to blunder. Professor Slughorn keeps telling me I just don't have my grandmother and dad's gift for the subject, but my dad admitted one time he cheated most of the year."

Snape is only barely listening, as he is too busy watching those green eyes come alive with animation. However, he does grunt at the mention of Harry Potter and Potions.

"Something you wanted to say, Severus?" asks Dumbledore.

"Nothing that this boy has not heard apparently," Snape hisses.

"I know it was your book my dad was cheating from," Al states calmly, as he gazes at Snape with those eyes. "He and Mum gave me all sorts of lessons on never trusting evil books that think for themselves."

"Wise advice," Dumbledore says. "You never know when the book might really be a piece of a dark lord's soul."

Al laughs and grins, and Snape realizes it will be impossible to hate the boy properly, despite looking like the first James Potter and snatching up Lily's eyes from the gene pool.

"I suppose you had interesting bedtime stories, Albus," Dumbledore states, smiling. "You have been warned away from so much. I suspect you will have to have adventures of your own soon."

"I can't see Thestrals, so I can't go riding one to the Ministry very willingly, and I'm afraid of heights anyway, so I'm not going to be great at Quidditch," Al says. "And I don't need to fight a dragon because there's no Triwizard Tournament, and Rose's rat is definitely not secretly a Death Eater, although sometimes it shows evil tendencies. It bites Hugo all the time."

"All good things to hear, as they will keep you out of danger," Dumbledore replies, "except, perhaps, for the foul-tempered, but normal rat."

Al opens his mouth to speak again, but there is a noise at the bottom of the stairway, like someone walking past. He quickly grabs his wand and snuffs out the light on the end of it, but he can hear voices now coming up the stairs.

"Under the cloak with you, Albus," whispers Dumbledore. Al complies and then listens as footsteps approach up the stairs and the door opens.

"I heard voices," insists Filch, as McGonagall rolls her eyes and says, "None of the students know the password to get up here, Argus."

She peers around and sees nothing out of place. Still, she looks up at the portraits and asks, "Has anyone aside from me been up here?"

It is Dumbledore who answers, as Al holds his breath. "No, Minerva. Argus, you probably heard us talking," he says, as he makes a sweeping gesture to all of the portraits. Phineas Nigellus has thankfully left his portrait, and Snape looks as sullen as always.

"See, Argus?" sighs McGonagall. "Now, I'd like to return to bed."

They leave, but it is several moments before a disembodied head emerges from the invisibility cloak.

"I think it's time you return to bed, Albus," Dumbledore says. "Maybe we shall talk normally again some other time."

"Okay, and t-thanks for not telling the professor," he stammers.

"You did little wrong," replies Dumbledore. "Curiosity is not a sin, although you should beware sticking your neck out too far."

"Yes, sir." And then Al's wand is lit again and he vanishes back under the cloak. The door opens seemingly by its own accord, and then the boy is gone.

After several moments, part of which is spent with Dumbledore humming and twiddling his thumbs, Dumbledore asks, "So, Severus? Has Harry used our names in vain?"

"I wasn't aware our names were so holy," replies Snape smoothly.

"Such games you play, Severus," states Dumbledore. He smiles and adds, "I do hope he returns."

Severus makes a noncommittal noise, but he is thinking of the green eyes. "I suppose I wouldn't mind either," he admits after several minutes have past.

"I thought you would say as much," Dumbledore replies, and then there is silence among the portraits once again.

* * *

**A/N: Please let me know what you think in a review. (Hopefully I've avoided any glaring mistakes.) Thanks.**

**A/N 2: If you want to hear more about Al, Snape the portrait, and all of the rest, go to my continuation of this story, which is called _Complexity_. :)**


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